Biogeneration of silver nanoparticles from Cuphea procumbens for biomedical and environmental applications González Pedroza, María G. Tapia Benítez, Andrea Regina Navarro Marchal, Saul Abenhamar Martínez-Martínez, Eduardo Marchal Corrales, Juan Antonio Boulaiz Tassi, Houria Morales‑Luckie, Raúl A. Data availability All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article. Acknowledgements To the Mexican Council of Science and Technology (COMECYT) for the "Financing for Research of Women Scientists" of the Fund for Scientific Research and Technological Development of the State of Mexico and the FEDER Operational Program 2020/Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento/ Project (B-CTS-562-UGR20). Nanotechnology is one of the most important and relevant disciplines today due to the specific electrical, optical, magnetic, chemical, mechanical and biomedical properties of nanoparticles. In the present study we demonstrate the efficacy of Cuphea procumbens to biogenerate silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with antibacterial and antitumor activity. These nanoparticles were synthesized using the aqueous extract of C. procumbens as reducing agent and silver nitrate as oxidizing agent. The Transmission Electron Microscopy demonstrated that the biogenic AgNPs were predominantly quasi-spherical with an average particle size of 23.45 nm. The surface plasmonic resonance was analyzed by ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis) observing a maximum absorption band at 441 nm and Infrared Spectroscopy (FT IR) was used in order to structurally identify the functional groups of some compounds involved in the formation of nanoparticles. The AgNPs demonstrated to have antibacterial activity against the pathogenic bacteria Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, identifying the maximum zone of inhibition at the concentration of 0.225 and 0.158 µg/mL respectively. Moreover, compared to the extract, AgNPs exhibited better antitumor activity and higher therapeutic index (TI) against several tumor cell lines such as human breast carcinoma MCF-7 (IC50 of 2.56 µg/mL, TI of 27.65 µg/mL), MDA-MB-468 (IC50 of 2.25 µg/mL, TI of 31.53 µg/mL), human colon carcinoma HCT-116 (IC50 of 1.38 µg/mL, TI of 51.07 µg/mL) and melanoma A-375 (IC50 of 6.51 µg/mL, TI of 10.89 µg/mL). This fact is of great since it will reduce the side effects derived from the treatment. In addition, AgNPs revealed to have a photocatalytic activity of the dyes congo red (10–3 M) in 5 min and malachite green (10–3 M) in 7 min. Additionally, the degradation percentages were obtained, which were 86.61% for congo red and 82.11% for malachite green. Overall, our results demonstrated for the first time that C. procumbens biogenerated nanoparticles are excellent candidates for several biomedical and environmental applications. 2023-02-17T13:19:49Z 2023-02-17T13:19:49Z 2023-01-16 journal article González-Pedroza, M.G., Benítez, A.R.T., Navarro-Marchal, S.A. et al. Biogeneration of silver nanoparticles from Cuphea procumbens for biomedical and environmental applications. Sci Rep 13, 790 (2023). [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26818-3] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/80042 10.1038/s41598-022-26818-3 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional Springer Nature